Youngstown, Ohio – The RMU softball team continued action in the 2022 Horizon League Tournament Thursday, earning a 7-1 win over No. 5 seed Green Bay in an elimination game at YSU Softball Field. The Colonials improved to 29-20 (.592) overall during the 2022 season with the victory and advance to take on No. 2 seed Cleveland State Friday in a Noon first pitch.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
RMU wasted no time getting its offense going Thursday, plating three runs in the bottom of the second off Green Bay starter Abigail Gawlinski. The Colonials also did their damage with two outs. Fifth-year
Taylor Rhinehart led off the frame with a single to center to extend her hitting streak to eight games but after being forced at second on a sacrifice bunt by catcher
Meadow Sacadura, freshman
Bailee Bertani popped out to second. Sophomore
Charlotte Grover followed with a single down the line in left field, and Gawlinski plunked freshman
Anna Resnik to load the bases. Fifth-year
Alaina York kept the rally going to put RMU on the board, singling up the middle to give the Colonials a 1-0 advantage. The lead swelled to 3-0 when freshman
Alaina Koutsogiani laced a single to left center, bringing home both Grover and Resnik.
COME AND KNOCK ON OUR DOOR
In the bottom of the third, the Colonials added three more runs to grab a 6-0 cushion. Senior
Erika Bell led off the inning with a double to center off Lauren King, who relieved Gawlinski after the single by Koutsogiani. Sophomore
Julia Ehrman came on to pinch run, and Rhinehart singled through the right side to bring her home and give RMU a 4-0 lead. King settled down to get two outs, but Resnik doubled to left to score two more runs. That would spell the end for King, who was replaced by Brittany Baneck.
QUOTABLE
"The game is funny sometimes," RMU head coach
Jexx Varner said. "You lose three straight one-run ball games, you lose six straight on this field and you lose three straight games to an opponent 3-2. You just have to keep believing in yourself that things will turn the right way. Yesterday was big for momentum. Coming out here today, knowing we had one game and that's all we had to worry about, they're playing with a lot of confidence and playing nice and free. They've accepted if we just play ball the game will fall our way if we keep pushing."
DMV
While the offense was clicking, senior
Dana Vatakis put forth arguably her best start of the season when the Colonials needed it most. Fresh off
earning academic plaudits earlier in the day, Vatakis held the Phoenix without a hit until leadoff hitter Tiffany Giese singled to left with two outs in the top of the fifth. The hit brought home Randi McKay for the only run of the contest for Green Bay, who reached on a fielder's choice. Vatakis went the distance, allowing just three hits while striking out six in her fourth complete game of the season and first in almost two months, an 8-1 win @ UIC (3/24) when she also yielded just three hits while striking out seven. Vatakis improved to 8-8 (.500) overall on the year from the circle with the win.
QUOTABLE
"Dana was great," Varner said. "It's awesome to be able to throw somebody during the third game of a tournament that had thrown only two innings prior to today. That's the gas in the tank that as you get deeper in the tournament that maybe not a lot of people have. It's a luxury we've preached all year long, and it showed today. Dana stepped up and gave us a great start."
ANSWERING THE CALL
The Colonials concluded the scoring in the bottom of the sixth, with sophomore
Catalina Saxen getting ahead in the count before launching her third home run of the season over the wall in left off Baneck. Saxen's dinger was her second of the year as a pinch hitter, and overall during the 2022 season in those situations she has hit .316 (6-for-19) with nine RBI.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
RMU's 11 hits marked the most for the Colonials since also banging out 11 in a 7-1 triumph over Purdue Fort Wayne in game one of a doubleheader at the North Athletic Complex (4/23). Eight of the nine starters collected at least one hit, with Rhinehart finishing 2-for-4 with an RBI and Grover going 2-for-3 with a run. In the last six games, each of which have been played at YSU Softball Field, Rhinehart is hitting a white hot .600 (12-for-20) with a double, triple, home run and six RBI.
UP NEXT
The Colonials and Vikings will square off at Noon Friday, with the winner advancing to take on the loser of the following game between No. 1 seed Oakland and No. 6 seed Northern Kentucky. That game from YSU Softball Field has a 5:00 p.m. first pitch.
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